Absolutely not, the Smithsonian should not charge admission.  It is a 
guardian and a steward of objects held in public trust by the American 
people.  As soon as admission fees are taken at the door, a museum 
discriminates against a certain public, and in discriminating that 
museum ceases to be public.  Charge admission for the Smithsonian?  Why 
not make public library collections pay per view?  Certainly there will 
have to be cuts in areas and in the visitor experience, but do not 
exclude certain members of the public from participating in the 
experience, whatever it may be.

However, as a compromise, free admission with proof of American 
citizenship, perhaps the only good use for the proposed ID cards, and 
paid admission for non-US citizens.  Wait though, (note I am not being 
facetious at this point) this would exclude the population of 
undocumented workers living in the US.  So no, no admission fees.

Jacob Thomas
M.A. International Museum Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden
PhD candidate Conservation Science


On Jul 13, 2006, at 4:11 PM, Dan Prives wrote:

> I am offering a short survey
>
> Smithsonian Admission Survey:  Should the Smithsonian museums on the
> Mall in  DC charge admission, and if so, how much could they charge?
>
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=819342356571
>
> Regards,
> Dan Prives
> Where Most Needed
> Blogging about charities daily at:
> http://www.wheremostneeded.org
>
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